Yay, weekend!

Well, I tried to make cookies with my new toaster oven (with convection ability, which means a fan to blow the air around, ooooh) today with mixed results. I can turn out either slightly burned or totally white cookies. I think I almost had it perfect once but I let them got for two minutes under a higher setting to brown more and the edges burned. *le sigh* I will get the hang of this though! Next project will be scones. Unsurprisingly the challenge was finding the ingredients to bake with. I took a picture. Thank goodness I can read hiragana and katakana! Brown sugar and raisins in particular were difficult. Luckily the import store had the big bag of raisins and I was able to find (the sugar section in general and differentiate it from the salt section) brown sugar near the white sugar.

This week went okay as far as classes go. I'm back on the ball with planning activities ahead of time. I did my first special (as in kids with special learning needs, so positive context) class and it went well, too. I love them, actually, they're really sweet kids. And most of them are really smart and like English class.

I visited with Yumiko last night and afterwards we went to her house and I talked with Keith,too. He gave me some awesome recommendations for an electronic dictionary to buy since my DS version can only go so far. He's also lent me some textbooks since he's already passed his JLPT (Japanese Language Profeciency test) level one, which means he's fluent enough to work for a Japanese company.

Oh, also, with my Amazon.jp order this week I finally got the right version of the translation and notes guide to go with my Japanese textbook. The first one I bought had all the Japanese words written in the English alphabet. I think it's better to be able to recognize them when written in normal Japanese letters, too, so I had to get this new one. (I also now have all of the 'Catwings' books by Ursula K. Le Guin which makes me really happy, too.)

My brain has finally let out enough useless info that I can read again. I've gotten through five books since arriving. This is a record for the past few years. It's so nice to not worry about stuffing my brain for exams anymore!

Anyway, I'm off to do some knitting or something else to relax!